Investing for dividend income

4 years ago, I started to move all my RRSP holdings into dividend-paying stocks, and set a goal of earning $60,000 in dividend income.

2 years ago, I opened a non-registered leveraged portfolio that's managed by a financial planner. She invested my money in dividend paying mutual funds. Currently, those dividends are going to (1) pay off the interest on my investment loans, (2) pay off my mortgage faster and (3) invest in other mutual funds.

This year, between my RRSP and non-registered account, I generated $36,000 in dividend income, most of which was reinvested.

My concerns:

• I'm turning 55 this year, and I plan to retire at 60. I'm not sure I can grow my investments fast enough to reach my income goal. I hate spending time doing the math, but I'll have to. (Yes, I could get my FP to do it, and I probably will, but I'm a control freak so I'd double-check everything she does anyway!)
• I have to start moving some stocks into fixed-income instruments. For a woman my age, I've taken on too much risk. Now's not the time to do the selling, but I will have to at some time soon. All the experts say I should have 50% in FI instruments, and I have 5%. Now, I probably did better this year than most of the experts, so I'm not taking their recommendation literally, but I do realize that I do have to start building some protection in my portfolio.

This totally sucks, of course, as I really love my dividend stocks and I've been reading up on them quite a bit this past week as I start rebalancing my portfolio. Oh well, that's the life of a mature investor I guess.

On another note: I was thrilled to find a Canadian FP blog that focusses on dividend investing. His goal is to generate $100,000 in dividend income.

I've read only a few posts, but I'm definitely subscribing to this guy's feed. His overall investment principles are close to mine, so I'm sure I'll be learning a lot.